Future Shock (standard:science fiction, 1050 words)
Author: pjlawton	Added: Nov 24 2003	Views/Reads: 3547/2328	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A young woman gets a frightening glance into the future.

Future Shock 

By P.J.Lawton 

She had read that some people possessed a special gift, a gift that let
them see things that had not yet happened. Until that day she hadn't 
really believed it. Not it her wildest dreams had she thought it could 
happen to her. 

It was a normal spring day just like many others until the unimaginable
happened. What made this day so unusual? This day for the first time 
she saw the future. 

Her normal morning run was early just after daybreak. Why? There was
less Smog and much less congestion. The morning she first glimpsed the 
future she had altered her standard routine by stopping for a coffee.  
While waiting she happened to look at the headlines displayed on the 
newspaper box beside the coffee stand. She was astounded at what she 
saw. The headline read: 

‘Massive Quake Hits SoCal. 9.0 Earthquake Decimates Major Metro Area.
Hundreds of Thousands Dead.' 

She looked a little more closely and read the date. The paper was dated
fours days in the future. What kind of sick gag is this, she thought. 
Yelling to the counter man she asked if this was his idea of a joke. 
His reply was that he had no idea what she was talking about. Pulling 
coins out of her fanny pack she hastily fed the machine and pulled out 
the SoCal Morning News. Quickly opening it she noted that now the 
headlines had changed, nothing about a quake. Looking at all the other 
papers she noted that they all had similar headlines. No earthquake. 

Lightheaded she slumped onto a nearby bench. What was going on here, she
had seen the headline she was sure of it. Briskly shaking her head to 
clear her mind she figured it must have just been a figment of her 
imagination. After a few seconds she grabbed her coffee and headed 
home. 

*** 

The next morning as usual she scanned the news headlines from her
terminal.  When she brought up the SoCal Morning News she again she saw 
large banners, this time they said: 

‘Massive Rescue Operation. Epicenter in the Mission District. District
Totally Destroyed. Casualties Expected at 95%' 

The paper was dated four days in the future. 

She was stunned. The mission district was her neighborhood. The photos
showed utter complete destruction. Not a building was left standing. 

After a bit she realized she had been holding her breath. Vigorously
rubbing her eyes she thought, what is wrong with me, am I going nuts? 
Can I actually predict the future or was it something else? No, 
somebody somewhere is trying to tell me something. 

She had always believed everyone had a guardian angel. Maybe hers was
trying to help her now. 

At first she was pretty indecisive about what to do. Maybe she should
just get out of town for a few days, just to be safe. Of course that 
wouldn't be easy. For the past few months travel had been severely 
restricted. To curb population shift no one was allowed out of the 
SoCal area without a special pass. But, her old boyfriend Jason did 
work at the travel bureau. Time to call in a favor. 

*** 

By four o'clock the next afternoon she had reached the SoCal border
station. It had taken almost eight hours to drive the 150 kilometers to 
the border. She now realized why no one in his or her right mind drove 
anywhere anymore. Hot, bumper-to-bumper, screaming swearing people 
moving along so slowly that you felt you were standing still.  Oh well, 
she was here now things had to get better. 


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